Gas Bandit's Political Thread V: The Vampire Likes Bats

IronBrig4

IronBrig4

I watched some more of the graduation video. After that racist trash got thrown out, his daughter continued to sit with a glum look on her face. I cannot imagine being 17 or 18 years old and having THAT memory running through my head on what is supposed to be a day to celebrate an achievement.

I wonder what her graduation party was like afterward.
 
D

Dubyamn

GasBandit said:
Biden issued an executive order that temporarily suspends most asylum claims at the southern border when unauthorized crossings exceed a daily threshold. Biden said he’s taking action to “gain control” of the border after convicted felon Trump and the Republicans left him “no choice” when they sunk the bipartisan immigration deal they had once demanded. Under the order, when crossings exceed a daily average of 2,500 over the course of a week, Biden can shut down the border in between ports of entry. Once the shutdown is in effect, Homeland Security can reopen the border once average crossings have fallen below 1,500 for seven consecutive days. Regular asylum processing will be restored 14 days later. Migrants who cross without authorization will not be eligible for asylum absent compelling circumstances, making the measure the most restrictive border policy instituted by Biden, or any other modern Democrat, and echoes Trump’s 2018 effort to ban migrants who cross the border illegally from claiming asylum, which was later blocked by federal courts. The ACLU, meanwhile, plans to sue the White House over the executive order, saying “a ban on asylum is illegal just as it was when Trump unsuccessfully tried it.” (NPR / Associated Press / New York Times / Politico / Washington Post / NBC News / Bloomberg / Mother Jones / Axios / CNN / CBS News)
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How fucking stupid is Biden? Claiming that this is the most important election ever and then just fucking spitting in the eyes of his base. Fucking racist piece of trash.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Dubyamn said:
How fucking stupid is Biden? Claiming that this is the most important election ever and then just fucking spitting in the eyes of his base. Fucking racist piece of trash.
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He is - wrongly in my mind - assuming progressives and the left will hold their nose and vote for him because the alternative is worse, so that he can do this to try and convince/appeal to moderate/conservative voters.
While the alternative really is much worse, I'm afraid people have gotten so blunted and turned off politics by now that much of the left - and certainly minorities - will simply not vote. Trump's support is rock solid and every Trumpist WILL go vote. Biden's support is shaky at best and far too many people won't bother.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Human activities were responsible for 92% of the warming observed in 2023 – earth’s hottest calendar year on record. May was marked the 12th consecutive month to set a monthly global average temperature record. And, over the past year, global temperatures averaged 1.6 degrees Celsius (2.9 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels. Over the next five years, there’s a 90% chance Earth will set yet another record for its warmest year. “It is shocking but not surprising that we have reached this 12-month streak,” the director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service said. “While this sequence of record-breaking months will eventually be interrupted, the overall signature of climate change remains and there is no sign in sight of a change in such a trend.” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres added: “Our planet is trying to tell us something. But we don’t seem to be listening.” (Washington Post / Associated Press / Axios / CNN / New York Times)
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
A federal judge ordered Steve Bannon to report to prison on July 1, to begin serving his four-month prison sentence.Bannon was sentenced in 2022 for contempt of Congress after defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee related to his involvement in Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to Biden. After the hearing, Bannon promised to take his conviction “all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to,” claiming without evidence that the Justice Department was “shutting down the MAGA movement, shutting down grassroots conservatives, shutting down President Trump.” Bannon, who will be behind bars until just before the November election and unable to continue his podcast, added: “There’s nothing that can shut me up and nothing that will shut me up. There’s not a prison built or a jail built that will ever shut me up.” (Politico / Axios / Washington Post / New York Times / NBC News / CNN / Associated Press)
 
IronBrig4

IronBrig4

Dubyamn said:
How fucking stupid is Biden? Claiming that this is the most important election ever and then just fucking spitting in the eyes of his base. Fucking racist piece of trash.
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To be fair, a lot of people are exploiting the asylum system. No, the system hasn't been significantly reformed since the 1980s. Yes, the Republicans deliberately torpedoed an effort to remedy the asylum system just because Trump told them to. Yes, Republican portrayals of asylum seekers as violent wretches in dirty rags are reminiscent of the anti-immigrant hysteria of the 1920s. And yes, Republicans are willfully ignorant to the fact that American guns are fueling violence in Latin America and contributing to the waves of refugees.

However, the system is swamped. People who are really economic migrants know they can just claim they're seeking asylum. It can take months or years for a hearing. In the meantime, they'll just fade into the shadows or take an Abbott or DeSantis-sponsored bus ride to NYC or Chicago.
 
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Dubyamn

IronBrig4 said:
To be fair, a lot of people are exploiting the asylum system. No, the system hasn't been significantly reformed since the 1980s. Yes, the Republicans deliberately torpedoed an effort to remedy the asylum system just because Trump told them to. Yes, Republican portrayals of asylum seekers as violent wretches in dirty rags are reminiscent of the anti-immigrant hysteria of the 1920s. And yes, Republicans are willfully ignorant to the fact that American guns are fueling violence in Latin America and contributing to the waves of refugees.

However, the system is swamped. People who are really economic migrants know they can just claim they're seeking asylum. It can take months or years for a hearing. In the meantime, they'll just fade into the shadows or take an Abbott or DeSantis-sponsored bus ride to NYC or Chicago.
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Shutting down the asylum system because it is swamped is an inhumane and psychotic way to try and clear the backlog. And Biden is the stupidest motherfucker who has ever sat his stupid ass in the Oval Office if he thinks it’s going to win him a single fucking vote.
 
IronBrig4

IronBrig4

Biden did try to alleviate the crush of applications by appointing more judges and clerks to process everything. It might have worked but Republicans decided they didn't want to give him a win during an election year. That's also partly why they blocked aid to Ukraine for six months.

Severely curtailing asylum will get Biden votes, though. Normally liberal voters in New York City, Boston, and Denver are tired of tripping over Guatemalan or Venezuelan panhandlers who always seem to have a baby in tow. That's Third World beggary. Those cities already have enormous issues with homelessness and a housing crisis, and the influx of asylum seekers compounds the issue.

Again, there are people who are genuinely in need of asylum and then there are folks who are just gaming the system.
 
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Dubyamn

IronBrig4 said:
Biden did try to alleviate the crush of applications by appointing more judges and clerks to process everything. It might have worked but Republicans decided they didn't want to give him a win during an election year. That's also partly why they blocked aid to Ukraine for six months.
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Which toooooootally justifies tearing up the asylum laws.

Severely curtailing asylum will get Biden votes, though. Normally liberal voters in New York City, Boston, and Denver are tired of tripping over Guatemalan or Venezuelan panhandlers who always seem to have a baby in tow. That's Third World beggary. Those cities already have enormous issues with homelessness and a housing crisis, and the influx of asylum seekers compounds the issue.
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Right the critical states of New York Massachusetts and Colorado. Exactly the places Biden needs. And of course this one trick will clear the Guatemalan mothers out of the cities.

Again, there are people who are genuinely in need of asylum and then there are folks who are just gaming the system.
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And Biden’s “solution” is to toss them all out of the country without any due process. It’s Psychotic.
 
IronBrig4

IronBrig4

It's not about kicking people out. It's making it harder for new migrants to apply for asylum. Some can still apply (eg. unaccompanied minors) but most will face a much higher bar. And some swing states like Arizona are much affected by illegal border crossings. Let's look at Hispanic communities along the Arizona-Mexico border. Outside Yuma and Tucson there just aren't many job opportunities. The Border Patrol offers a career with decent pay and government benefits. Hispanics in those areas are ideal candidates because they're bilingual. The way they see it, their ancestors didn't come to the US. The US came to THEM. They see illegal immigrants as cheats who need to be pushed back. They really don't like it when they hear Democratic politicians encouraging asylum seekers when streams of migrants cross through their backyards.

Now what Trump and his cronies are talking about is deporting 15-20 million people.
 
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Dubyamn

IronBrig4 said:
It's not about kicking people out. It's making it harder for new migrants to apply for asylum. Some can still apply (eg. unaccompanied minors) but most will face a much higher bar.
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That isn’t what Biden’s order does. It deports people seeking asylum without due process depending on how many migrants were arrested the day before. And then we’ll only take asylum seekers after two weeks of migrant arrests having dropped below a level that we haven’t seen since early 2020 when people weren’t traveling due to the pandemic. There’s no “raised bar” we just aren’t going to be accepting asylum seekers because closing the door isn’t going to make people less desperate to get in. It’ll just force them to attempt crossings in more dangerous areas.

And some swing states like Arizona are much affected by illegal border crossings. Let's look at Hispanic communities along the Arizona-Mexico border. Outside Yuma and Tucson there just aren't many job opportunities. The Border Patrol offers a career with decent pay and government benefits. Hispanics in those areas are ideal candidates because they're bilingual. The way they see it, their ancestors didn't come to the US. The US came to THEM. They see illegal immigrants as cheats who need to be pushed back. They really don't like it when they hear Democratic politicians encouraging asylum seekers when streams of migrants cross through their backyards.
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So people definitely in the tank for Trump who aren’t going to be going Biden over him tearing up our asylum laws.

Now what Trump and his cronies are talking about is deporting 15-20 million people.
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Which is why this is such a stupid move on Biden’s part. He’s not going to out tough Trump on the border. And people who vote based on the border aren’t going to be like “Biden’s doing some racist bullshit on the border. I’m thinking about voting Democrat this time around.”[/quote][/QUOTE]
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Trump: "As soon as I'm in office, I'm going to deport 15-20 million people."
Biden: "I'm going to make it harder for the 2 million people who get in this year to apply for asylum."
Centrists: "I literally can't tell the difference between these two."

--Patrick
 
MindDetective

MindDetective

I just finished reading this:

91N9JPbPubL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg


It makes a compelling case (with some reservations). Biden is in a tough spot. Doing nothing sucks for asylum seekers and doing what he has done sucks maybe even more. But it might ultimately be just rearranging deck chairs on the whole situation. A more extreme approach might be the way to go.
 
IronBrig4

IronBrig4

MindDetective said:
It makes a compelling case (with some reservations). Biden is in a tough spot. Doing nothing sucks for asylum seekers and doing what he has done sucks maybe even more. But it might ultimately be just rearranging deck chairs on the whole situation. A more extreme approach might be the way to go.
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Venezuela and Haiti are failed states. The Northern Triangle in Central America isn't much better. There is also the usual poverty in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. It's very common for a decently well-off Nigerian or Guinea-Bissauan to take a flight from Turkey to Colombia, and then to Nicaragua where they won't need a visa. Then they'll go through Mexico and cross the Rio Grande. There are even some Ukrainians who fled when Russia invaded. They enter the US from the south as well.

So long as so many countries are in such disarray, millions of people will migrate. Many of them will look to the US. They don't care about any laws or regulations because they're purely focused on survival. And many others will pretend they need asylum.
 
MindDetective

MindDetective

IronBrig4 said:
Venezuela and Haiti are failed states. The Northern Triangle in Central America isn't much better. There is also the usual poverty in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. It's very common for a decently well-off Nigerian or Guinea-Bissauan to take a flight from Turkey to Colombia, and then to Nicaragua where they won't need a visa. Then they'll go through Mexico and cross the Rio Grande. There are even some Ukrainians who fled when Russia invaded. They enter the US from the south as well.

So long as so many countries are in such disarray, millions of people will migrate. Many of them will look to the US. They don't care about any laws or regulations because they're purely focused on survival. And many others will pretend they need asylum.
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My more extreme approach is dramatically removing barriers to immigration.
 
Krisken

Krisken

PatrThom said:
Trump: "As soon as I'm in office, I'm going to deport 15-20 million people."
Biden: "I'm going to make it harder for the 2 million people who get in this year to apply for asylum."
Centrists: "I literally can't tell the difference between these two."

--Patrick
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I need a "I hate this place" emote
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Dubyamn said:
So bans not “makes more difficult”?
Or is there some reason for the Orwellian doublespeak?
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Just two paragraphs after the above:
These actions are not permanent. They will be discontinued when the number of migrants who cross the border between ports of entry is low enough for America’s system to safely and effectively manage border operations. These actions also include similar humanitarian exceptions to those included in the bipartisan border agreement announced in the Senate, including those for unaccompanied children and victims of trafficking.
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Now stop bellyaching, we have more important things to talk about. Like the fact that it seems Clarence Thomas has finally remembered some of those gifts he has been receiving.
newrepublic.com

Clarence Thomas Finally Reports Gifts From GOP Billionaire Harlan Crow

The Supreme Court justice amended some of his old financial disclosure forms.
newrepublic.com newrepublic.com
"Oh, those gifts. Yes, I remember them now. Must've been an oversight."

--Patrick
 
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Dubyamn

PatrThom said:
Just two paragraphs after the above:

--Patrick
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The levels being 1,500 migrant arrests a day which was last achieved in early 2020 when people weren’t traveling due to Covid.

So a ban.

*edit* Also a temporary ban is “making it harder to apply for asylum” just because it’s temporary. It’s still an outright ban.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Dubyamn said:
It’s still an outright ban.
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Outright bans don't have exceptions.

Anyway, maybe we could talk instead about how Alex Jones is finally being forced to liquidate Infowars to pay up for mouthing off about Sandy Hook? I'm willing to temporarily lift the ban on schadenfreude for that:
deadline.com

Alex Jones Seeks To Liquidate His Holdings As He Faces Sandy Hook Defamation Judgment

Alex Jones is seeking to liquidate his holdings as he faces a $1.5 billion Sandy Hook defamation judgment.
deadline.com deadline.com

--Patrick
 
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